New Turkish constitution paves way for annulment of Article 301

PanARMENIAN.Net - The notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) may soon be no more; one of the articles in the new draft constitution requires the Constitutional Court to annul laws that contradict international agreements to which Turkey is a signatory.



Article 301 has been used to prosecute writers and journalists for "insulting Turkishness", even if they express their opinion in a nonviolent fashion, and stands in opposition to the European Human Rights Agreement.



In an effort to produce a civilian constitution, the Turkish government has appointed an academic team to draft a new constitution for the country. The Turkish Constitutional Court's structure and duties are to be reformed according to the new constitutional draft prepared by a top Turkish constitutional professor, Ergun Ozbudun, and his academic team. Ozbudun said Article 90 of the existing Constitution will remain, but be revised in the new draft to provide superiority to international agreements that Turkey has signed, Zaman reports.



Armenian Turkish editor Hrant Dink, who was gunned down January 19, 2007 in Istanbul, Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, novelist Elif Shafak and writer Ragip Zakaroglu stood trial under the article.